One of my earliest memories is of watching Monty Python through the banisters after I was long supposed to be in bed at the age of seven or eight (my parents wouldn’t allow it, but my big brother kindly used to leave the living room door open so that I could see). It was required viewing in those days if you wanted to keep up with the banter in the school playground the next day. Python humour was anarchic enough to appeal to us primary school children on a very basic level of silliness. And when called upon to play Mrs Smith in a school production of Ionesco’s The Bald Prima Donna, I based my performance entirely on Terry Jones’ female impersonation.

Python fans are in mourning this week following Jones’ passing at the age of 77. He’s rightly mourned as a brilliant comic actor and writer. But Medievalists and Chaucerians are also remembering an enthusiastic fellow traveller, whose two books about Chaucer were considered essential reading and whose advocacy for the teaching of history was tireless.

And now for something completely different. New research has set out to address the vexed question of why women have a longer life expectancy than men (vexed perhaps if you are a man like me). And this week we also took a detailed look at how developments in racket design have shaped the modern game of tennis.

From the US we have an absorbing history of black American first names such as Latasha and Perlie, while our African colleagues have taken a close look at the political quagmire that is Libya. From Australia, meanwhile, we have the curious tale of the fish that changes sex within ten days.

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